Archives for FUBAR

The Justice Department in 2002 told the CIA that its interrogators would be safe from prosecution for violations of anti-torture laws if they believed "in good faith" that harsh techniques used to break prisoners' will would not cause "prolonged mental harm."

One of Washington's odder practices, redolent of the Third World and its autocratic leaders, is having standard-issue portrait photos of the current president plastered all over federal government buildings and offices.

An FBI agent testifying at the first Guantanamo war crimes trial said interrogators did not advise detainees here of any rights because the military prison is dedicated to intelligence gathering, not law enforcement.

Agent Ali Soufan, an al-Qaida expert and star witness for the prosecution, said Tuesday the Guantanamo Bay Navy base is the only place in the world where he has not informed suspects of a right against self-incrimination.

For millions of Americans living in flood-prone places, all that stands between the waters of mayhem and safety is a pile of dirt.

Earthen berms, dikes and levees identical to those overtopped and breached in scores of places along swollen Midwest rivers in recent weeks, make up the vast majority of flood protection efforts across the United States.

In the 1980s, Congress, for what seemed good reason at the time, deregulated the thrifts -- savings and loan institutions -- and what followed were several intense years of wildly risky speculation in real estate and development, fueled by the creation of new and at the time exotic financing like brokered deposits and the bundling of mortgages for sale to Wall Street.